Chapter 32

It's not possible. The Madam is the one who must die today.

That's the law.

What she wanted to do is break the laws of the world.

'You can say that....'

It's hard for Carlin to say no as firmly as last time.

He couldn't even run away.

Just like back then, when he reluctantly suggested that she prove her abilities, the current Aria had such a power that he couldn't resist somehow.

'Those damn eyes.'

With a soft color like petals.

Strangely, there was a strong power that made people believe and move.

"I'm crazy. I must be crazy."

Carlin grumbled constantly.

It was because he readily accepted a ten-year-old's childish request.

Somehow, from the first time she broke the door, he had a bad feeling.

"No matter how talented the young miss is, if you forcibly pierces your core, you will die."

"Hmm."

"So, I'll temporarily activate it. In simple terms, I'm going to use my magic to open up a fake path."

'I thought you were going to say no again.'

Aria widened her eyes as if in surprise, and then nodded her head.

She didn't care what it was, as long as she could use her powers right now.

"However, if you take in an energy that is different from your natural energy, the side effects are huge. It will all going to burden your body..."

Carlin sighed deeply while speaking.

Aria was now drenched in the rain.

But, whether water drips from her body or not, she doesn't even think about drying it.

She didn't seem to care about the condition of her own body.

He couldn't help but sigh.

"Please come back alive, or I will be killed by my employer."

"Yes, I will."

"You're very good at answering."

Carlin grumbled to the end.

Then after biting his finger, he shed blood and engraved the text on Aria's forehead.

The text engraved in blood instantly turned golden, and permeated without a trace on her forehead.

"This is all I can do."

Carlin said so and moved Aria to the Grand Duchess's room in an instant.

'If you move me right away... !'

People find out!

Aria looked frightened and looked around the unfamiliar surroundings.

But strangely, she didn't see anyone.

She of course thought there would be Valentine's blood relatives to keep her on her deathbed.

'No Tristan, no Lloyd, no Vincent....'

Aria panicked and she froze there for a moment.

From the sound outside the room, it seems to not be surrounded by guards.

'There is no one guarding the room.

She found it strange that Sabina didn't even have someone to nurse for her.

'I'm sure today is the last day.'

The interior of the room was so small and simple that it was hard to believe that it was a room used by the mistress of the Grand Duchy.

Perhaps it is a structure that considers the movement of patients with difficult mobility.

Aria scanned the monotonous wallpaper and simple design of furniture, and found a white curtain spread over the bed, and she turned her direction towards it.

'Sabina.'

Beyond the veil was the shadow of death that could not be hidden.

Short breathing and light moans.

Aria was worried about Sabina's condition, so she took a step forward.

At the same time, a cold voice like frost fell.

"Obviously I told no one to come in."

Aria was surprised.

It was a rough, cracked, thin breath that seemed to break at any moment.

But Aria felt a bold spirit that couldn't be hidden in the voice.

'Like a knight, no, like a commander... .'

Aria opened her eyes and stopped her steps.

The Grand Duchess coughed and coughed, and then spoke to her.

"Go away."

"....."

She was only now aware of the situation.

All the people who were guarding the Grand Duchess were kicked out, so they couldn't be by her deathbed.

'Come to think of it, I've heard of it.'

Whenever Sabina's illness becomes critical, she wants to be alone, and she kicks everyone out.

So, her husband and son, who were unable to be by her side, were killing people.

'Why are you rejecting everyone?'

Maybe it's because she thinks that the disease can't get better no matter what she does.

'Or maybe it's because she doesn't want to show anyone her weakness.'

Aria found the look of Sabina's son, Lloyd, from her current look for some reason.

She thought, somehow, that Sabina was being harsher on purpose.

"Didn't I tell you to go?"

Aria stepped forward and stood in front of the veil.

Sabina, who turned her head in annoyance, but laboriously, made a voice slightly startled by the shadow smaller than she had expected.

She muttered in a slightly bewildered voice.

"No one can come in here..."

Through the cracks in the scattered veil, Sabina's figure caught a glimpse.

The pitifully skinny fingers reminded her of a relic she had seen before.

Aria suddenly wondered.

'What was the Grand Duchess like before she got sick?'

She thought that it would be quite different from how she is lying helplessly like she is now.

Aria took a small breath.

Then, with the veil in between, a sound filled with magical power flowed in.

"Do you know the land where the lemon trees grow."

Slowly, quietly, she continued her singing.

So as to not strain herself

***

The end of life was less painful than she thought.

Sabina couldn't feel anything anymore.

Her body, which only felt heavy weight, became lighter and lighter. Lighter than feathers roaming the air.

She was finally freed from the bondage of her sick body.

Her eyes gradually became blurry, and it went dark in an instant.

'Oh, I'm going to die soon.'

Now it's really over.

She thought so.

"Do you know the land where the lemon trees grow."

But Sabina heard the sound of life breathing into her senses that were gradually disappearing.

It was all over the place.

Like a mother's lullaby, the song, which bloomed in the sky, quietly permeated her ear like a drizzle.

"in darkened leaves the gold-oranges glow,

a soft wind blows from the pure blue sky,"

The pungent smell of grass brushed the tip of her nose.

The fresh green of summer gently tapped her heart.

As if to announce her noon, the green color fluttered with comfort like water drops falling on the surface of the water.

"the myrtle stands mute, and the bay-tree high?"

Sabina took no care, and she roamed among the overgrown grasses.

"Do you know it well?

It's there I'd be gone,

to be there with you, O, my beloved one!"

The gentle melody seemed to be cut off and went to one place one step at a time.

Like a gentle breeze, turning behind her then disappeared and when she looked forward, it pushed her back.

"Do you know the clouded mountain mass?

The mule picks its way through the misted pass,

and dragons in caves raise their ancient brood,

and the cliffs are polished smooth by the flood;"

The river, which was flowing gently, met the sea and shook like a huge wave.

The weight of life began to weigh on her again.

"Do you know it well?

It's there I'd be gone,

to be there with you, O, my beloved one!"

She wondered if she would wake up from the pain, and her breath, which had been stopped, burst out with a cough.

Her chest ached like it was crushed as she took a deep breath.

Life and pain go hand in hand.

Her vision that had flickered in black flashed, and soon she met the emerald-colored world.

"Do you know it well?

It's there I'd be gone,

to be there with you, O, my beloved one!"

Then her pain was gone, and a gentle breeze wrapped around her flesh.

As the sound of the singing disappeared, the feeling that had been lost came back.

Her world, which she thought had collapsed and disappeared, began to bloom again.

This time, it wasn't a hallucination, it was reality.

Sabina slowly lifted her closed eyelids.

It was raining hard/

Drops of water on the window sill.

Water drops flowing through the leaves. The land is wet and breathing. And........ A singing voice.

'I'm.....alive.'

She checked the imprint of the little person beyond the veil.

"...the fairy of spring."

Sabina muttered with confidence.

Then she saw a really small figure, like a fairy, startled.

But she couldn't continue talking.

Because Suma came rushing in uncontrollably.

***

"Cough! Cough!"

Aria vomited blood as soon as Sabina fell asleep.

This seems to be what Carlin referred to as 'the side effect of taking in an energy different from her natural energy'.

She felt like she was going to throw up her insides because her stomach won't turn anymore.

Aria was paying the price for lightly passing the shaman's warning.

"Cou, gh...."

He suggested a safer alternative than piercing the core.

Even this is so far.

Had he pierced the core as she had asked the shaman in the first place, she would have been really dead.

'Still, I was able to sing a song of healing, even temporarily, so it was cheap at this price.'

She saved Sabina, finally.

She had fulfilled her first wish properly.

She leaned against the wall for a moment in shock as if she was being ripped to pieces, holding her breath, and finally regained her mind.

Then she took out her handkerchief and wiped her lips and her hands roughly, then dug through her arms again.

She had originally planned to deal with the guards out of the room by singing the song of oblivion, but she couldn't.

'There was a reason the shaman provided a separate movement scroll.'

Aria grabbed the enchanted movement scroll and tore it to pieces with a blunt blade.

At the same time, her body immediately moved out of the main palace.

'Phew.'

She roughly wiped the blood from the corners of her mouth in the rain, preparing to whistle to call Silver.

"It's raining again."

That was then.

Suddenly another voice interrupted and broke the silence.

Aria raised her head in surprise.

On the second-floor terrace, a dark-haired boy was staring intensely at her.

[Lyrics quote: Goethe's novel, Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, 'Mignon'.]

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